Percy Jackson's Clawsome New School
by CharType
Summary: Set between the first and second books of PJO. Percy ends up attending Monster High during the school year. Confusion and friendship ensues.
1. Chapter 1

Percy awoke with a feeling of dread. It took him a moment before he remembered the cause.

Now, it took a lot to make Percy Jackson feel dread. For you see, Percy Jackson was a half-blood, one of the children of the Greek gods, in his case Poseidon. He had faced down fearsome and deadly monsters straight out of nightmares. But what he faced now was something far worse.

It was his first day at his new school.

Percy had never really liked any of his schools. Being ADHD and Dyslexic, like most half-bloods, he did pretty poorly on his schoolwork. On top of that, he tended to make enemies of the bullies and popular kids, which in turn meant that few people were willing to be friends with him. Percy didn't see why this new school should be any different.

Of course, this school was supposed to have a different way of doing things, but Percy had been to several schools like that. It had a weird name, and he would have to take a special cab to get there. Munster High, was it? Ah well, didn't really matter anyway.

Percy looked at the clock by his bed and decided that, as comfortable as his bed was right now, he shouldn't wait any longer. He got out of bed and dressed sullenly, then headed downstairs.

Percy's mom had set out breakfast. On the counter were blue scrambled eggs, blue sausages, and blue chocolate cookies. She always made blue food on special occasions. Percy supposed that she was trying to cheer him up, and it was sort of working. Percy took a little of everything and began eating, feeling a bit happier. It was all delicious.

After a few minutes, Percy's mom came out of her room. She had her uniform on and looked ready for work. Seeing Percy, she smiled radiantly and pulled him into a hug.

"Good morning Percy," she said. "Ready for your first day of school?"

Percy hugged her back tightly. "Good morning mom," he said. He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I am. Ready as I'll ever be, anyway." He sighed. He wasn't looking forward to it. But then he remembered that his mom was working hard to pay his tuition on top of putting herself through night school. He looked up at her and forced a smile. "I'll do my best," he promised.

Percy's mom smiled knowingly. "I know you haven't had very good experiences with your schools in the past, but I've heard very good things about this one. One of my customers at work recommended it to me. I mentioned that we were looking for a school, and she said that she thought it would be a perfect fit for you. Apparently her daughter goes there, and they're really good about providing their students with what they need to learn. You should at least give it a chance."

"I will mom," Percy promised.

Percy's mom glanced at the clock. "My gods Percy, look at the time!" she said. "It's almost time for you to leave. Hurry up, or you'll miss your cab."

Percy hurriedly finished his breakfast and ran downstairs. He ended up making it down to the street two minutes late. He saw the cab with his name on a sign pressed against the window. He hurriedly got in the back. "Thanks for waiting," he said to the driver through the partition.

"Yeah yeah, yer bloody lucky kid," the driver grumbled. "If yer late again I'll just leave yeh. Now 'ang on, we'd best get a move on." The car lurched and took off. The man's accent sounded British.

Percy hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, so he got in a quick nap on the ride there. He didn't even notice the slight jolt as they rode through the tunnel.

Before Percy knew it, they had arrived. He thanked the driver and walked up the steps. They were early, so none of the other students were there yet. He walked up the steps, taking note of the architecture.

One thing that struck him was the accessible entrances. There were lots of wide doorways, ramps and elevators, as well as a few things that he couldn't identify the purpose of. Clearly this school was big on disability access. Percy took that as a good sign. Hopefully this meant that they would be understanding of his ADHD and Dyslexia.

Percy walked through the empty halls and followed the directions he had received to his classroom. When he arrived, he was 20 minutes early to class. He sat down and took out a textbook, waiting for the other students to arrive.

At 10 minutes before class was set to start, three girls, evidently other students, entered the classroom together. Percy looked up and took in their odd appearances.

The first one had heavily styled black-with-white-streaks hair. Her skin was...wait, was her skin green? Percy figured it must be a trick of the light. Or maybe body paint? Huh, weird. She was wearing earrings and had several tattoos of stitches all down her body. She was wearing a blue blazer over a crisp white shirt, and a mid-length blue patterned skirt.

The second one was a bit more normal-looking, but still very made up. She had white skin black-and-purple-streaked hair styled into pigtails. She also had earrings, but no tattoos. She was wearing a frilly blouse and a medium-length skirt, this one pink.

The third girl was the most normal-looking of the bunch. She was brown-skinned and wore her brunette hair in a long curly mane, with only a few purple streaks. She wore a green T-shirt with a black jacket, and patterned purple jeans.

The three girls were conversing happily about something that had happened the previous night. Having taken them in, Percy turned back to his book. These girls were already clearly part of their own clique. His high school experiences up to now told him that these girls would have no interest in talking to him, and he was not about to attempt it. Better to keep reading his textbook.

"Hi, I'm Frankie, what's your name?"

Percy looked up. The green-skinned girl was twisting in her chair to face him, looking at him with a friendly smile. He was a bit taken aback, but he quickly recovered. "Uh...I'm Percy. Nice to meet you," he said after a second, smiling back. "I'm new here," he added.

"Yeah, I thought so," she said cheerily. "I know most of the monsters around here pretty well. I used to be new here myself not that long ago, actually. Don't worry, you'll fit in just fine. Welcome to Monster High!"

Wait, did she just say monsters? Ah, so the school was called Monster High. That must be why. Must be a term for the students here.

Anyway, normally such a name would cause Percy Jackson concern. As a half-blood, Percy had already had several encounters with monsters. The monsters that Percy knew were evil bloodthirsty creatures that preyed on humans, especially half-bloods. But these girls seemed nice, and perfectly ordinary. (Well, near enough. Not evil or bloodthirsty anyway.) Must be just a coincidental name, Percy reasoned.

The green-skinned girl went on to introduce her friends. "This is Clawdeen-"

"Yo," the brunette girl said, raising a hand in greeting.

"-and Draculaura."

"Nice to meet you," the black-and-purple hair girl said. Now that she was looking at him and speaking, Percy noticed she had an overbite.

"Hi," said Percy, looking at the other girls and smiling nervously. They were weird, but nice. Maybe this school would be different.

Clawdeen had taken out a small mirror to touch up her makeup, and Percy ended up glancing at it. As he did so, he caught a glimpse of something. An unmistakable, green, slithering something...

"Ah, gorgon!" Percy yelped. He reached into his pocket and withdrew what looked like an ordinary ballpoint pen. He deftly uncapped it, and it immediately transformed into his sword of Celestial Bronze, Riptide. "Everyone close your eyes!" he said urgently. He held out his sword in the direction of the hissing as he pulled out his own mirror from his backpack.

"Now, hold on!" a female Egyptian voice said in a somewhat panicked tone. "Um, take it easy, and could you please stop pointing that sword at my boyfriend?"

"Yeah dude, it's okay, we're all friends here. Just chill." This time it was a male voice speaking.

Looking out of the corner of his eye, Percy saw that his new friends were looking at him strangely. He finally dug out his mirror and looked in the direction where he had heard the hissing, and most recently, the new voices.

What he saw surprised him. There was a girl with dark skin dressed in bandages. That must have been the female voice he had heard. Beside her was the gorgon he had caught a glimpse of earlier. Only, he didn't look like any gorgon Percy had ever seen. Rather than being ugly, he was a handsome high school boy in his late teens. What was more, the girls were occasionally glancing at him, and not getting turned to stone.

Could this me a trick? Percy mentally ran through all the mythical creatures he knew, but he couldn't think of one capable of causing anything like this. Finally he decided that if there was something capable of fooling his senses this completely, then he was already doomed. He reluctantly lowered his sword.

"Um, could someone please explain to me what's going on?" Percy said uncertainly.

"Actually, I think we were rather hoping you could tell us," said Frankie, looking confused. "And why you're carrying around a transforming sword with you."

Just then the teacher walked in. He had grey skin and sandy hair, and he was wearing a brown coat. His expression was stern and no-nonsense. He saw Percy's sword and started.

"Young man, no weapons at school!" he exclaimed. "Put that sword away at once! And keep it sheathed, or I shall have to send you to the headmistress' office."

"Please do," said Percy weakly. Maybe they would have some answers.

This was hardly the first time that Percy had been sent to the principal's office. He waited outside the office as his teacher explained things to her, before leaving to go back to teaching his class. "Enter, Mr. Jackson," said a crisp female voice. Percy did.

Percy closed the door behind him and faced the desk. The headmistress was resting her head on her desk as she looked at him. Stranger than this, however, was the fact that it wasn't attached to her body. The headmistress was headless. This struck Percy as being rather ironic, and he would have found it extremely funny if he wasn't so worried about being expelled.

The headmistress fixed her eyes on him. "Hello. You must be Percy Jackson. I have been informed you recently transferred in. Allow me to formally welcome you to Monster High. I am Headmistress Nora Bloodgood. Now that that's out of the way, your teacher has told me that you drew a weapon in class and pointed it at another student. Can you kindly explain why, Mr. Jackson?"

Percy awkwardly explained how he he had been attacked by Gorgons before, and he had assumed that his life was once again in danger. He promised that it wouldn't happen again. He waited nervously for her response.

Headmistress Bloodgood had listened to his story with attention and surprise. She now adopted a serious expression and lifted her head up onto her neck. "The fault is mine Mr. Jackson. I had assumed that whoever had put your name down had explained to you how this school operates. Please allow me to explain."

The woman explained to Percy that the school was a school for monsters where they could learn with others of their kind without the prejudice most humans in this world had for monsters. She further explained that this was not the world that Percy was from.

The school, she explained, had access to a portal that allowed them to several different dimensions. The portal was most often used to get to a sister school called Ever After High, but also led to, among other things, Percy's dimension.

The school had recently begun looking for exceptional students from different dimensions. One of the staff visiting Percy's dimension had met his mom and put in an application for him. Once the woman was done explaining, she asked Percy whether he understood, and whether he had any questions.

"Okay, I think I've got it," Percy said slowly. Strangely, this wasn't the weirdest thing that had ever happened to him. Probably one of the top ten though. Maybe #5 or #6? He'd check his list when he got home.

"So, about my sword," he said as a thought occurred to him. He pulled Riptide from his pocket, where he had stowed it again in the form of a pen. He uncapped it and it once more transformed into a sword. "Everyone here can see it right? As a sword, I mean." In Percy's world, a force called the Mist prevented most people from seeing Percy's sword as it really was. But that girl had clearly called it a sword earlier.

The headmistress held out her head to get a closer look and peered at the sword. "Yes, I think so. I can't speak for the others, but I see a bronze, shimmering, double-edged sword, with leather wrapped around the handle, and...oh my, what looks like gold. Is this unusual where you are from?"

"It's, uh, very uncommon," Percy said. So apparently the Mist didn't work on the residents of this school. Interesting. He didn't know whether this was because they could see through it, or whether the Mist just didn't work in other dimensions at all. Something to look into.

"At any rate, I am going to ask you to keep it sheathed- er, capped, while you are attending here. I promise you that you will be in no danger. Do you have any other questions, Percy?"

"No ma'am," Percy said, capping his sword.

"Then you may go to your next class." Headmistress Bloodgood smiled slightly at him. "It was nice to meet you Percy. I would like to apologize for the mixup and I hope you will feel welcome at Monster High in the future."

"Thank you ma'am," Percy said before leaving the office. He was pleasantly surprised at having left the principal's office without a detention for once. Thinking his new principal was pretty nice, he checked his schedule to find where he needed to go next.

Percy left the office in time to make it to his next class of the day, Mad Science. That was another thing about the school. All of the classes had weird names, but as far as Percy could tell, they were roughly equivalent to normal high school classes, in this case science class. Not that Percy had ever learned much in normal classes anyway, so he didn't really care.

After a few more classes, it was time for lunch, which was thankfully normal. Percy was worried that the cafeteria food, being made for monsters, would be some unusual, gross, inedible substance. But it turned out to be just regular cafeteria food. Which was to say, it was a gross, inedible substance, but of a completely usual kind.

At lunch, Frankie waved Percy over to sit with her and her friends, which Percy did so gratefully. Now that he took a closer look at them, he realized that a lot of the features he had noticed before were actually monster traits. Frankie's stitching tattoos were actual stitches. Draculaura's overbite was vampire fangs. Clawdeen's brown skin was actually fur.

In addition to the three he had met in class, Frankie introduced him to a girl named Ghoulia, who was a zombie. They were all curious why Percy had freaked out and what he had talked about with the headmistress. Percy explained who he was and what his dimension was like, to general astonishment.

"Wow, that's...bizarre," Frankie said softly. "So the, um, monsters back where you're from. You've never had them not be trying to kill you?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Percy said.

Ghoulia opened her mouth and moaned. Percy didn't understand her, but the other girls clearly did.

"Ghoulia's right," Frankie said. "If that's what you've went through, it's totally understandable that you panicked. I can promise you though, Deuce is totally harmless. That's his name by the way, the gorgon."

"Ah, thanks. Speaking of which, I have some questions about the monsters in this universe. In my universe, gorgons all turn people to stone when you look at them. Does Deuce not do that?"

Frankie shook her head. "No. Well, he does turn people to stone, but he has to be looking directly at you. That's why he wears those sunglasses all the time."

"Ah," Percy said. That explained that then.

They talked a bit longer about unimportant things, and Frankie invited him to hang out with the Maul (their way of saying the mall) with that coming Saturday. Percy told them he'd have to see if he could get transportation. He was pretty sure that an alternate dimension was outside of the service area of most New York taxis.

Before his next class, Percy used the school's phone to call his mom in his home dimension. He told her about the situation, and asked to make sure he could go to the Maul on Saturday if he found transportation.

"Well, um, yes, I suppose that's fine," Percy's mom said, still sounding a bit dazed. "So, um, Percy...this is good news, isn't it? I mean, it sounds like you're making friends, right?"

Percy thought about this for a few seconds. "Well...yes. I never thought I'd say this but...I like this school. I like my teachers. I like my classmates in general. Things are...good."

"I'm so glad to hear that Percy," his mom said, her voice full of emotion. "Well, my lunch break's almost over. I need to get back to work. See you later Percy."

"Bye mom." Percy hung up the phone and just stood there, trying to process his emotions. He didn't have long however, for just then the bell rang, and he ran to make it to his next class.

 **A/N:**

 **Well, this is my first piece of writing on this site. Interestingly, it is also the first Monster High/Percy Jackson crossover on the site. I thought it would make for an interesting crossover, with the different takes on Greek mythology and the common children of mythical beings theme. I certainly had fun writing it, and I hope you enjoyed reading it to. I might write more chapters if I have time, I have some ideas. I would love to hear what you thought and what you would like to see in future chapters, so please review**


	2. Chapter 2

Percy was putting away his things in his locker and preparing for his next class when Frankie came up to him. "Hey Percy! So what did your mom say, can you go to the Maul with us on Saturday?"

"Yeah, for sure!" Percy replied pleasantly from inside his locker. He was rifling through his textbooks looking for the one he needed. "We called the school and apparently there's an alternate way I can get here, and my mom's fine with it, so I'll see you Saturday."

"That's great!" Frankie exclaimed. She paused for a moment. "We just finished working on a new routine in fearleading. We're planning on showing it at the big game on Friday." She sounded proud and excited, like she had been waiting to tell someone.

"Oh," Percy said, caught a bit off guard. "That's great!" he said with friendly enthusiasm. Finally he found the book he was looking for. He grabbed it and closed his locker, turning to face Frankie.

Percy would have thought it very funny that they called cheerleading "fearleading" in this universe. But right now he was too busy noticing how form-fitting the fearleading uniforms were.

Demigod or not, Percy was still a teenage boy.

Up until now, no one in a cheerleader uniform had ever willingly come this close to Percy. In this unfamiliar circumstance, he could not think of a response. It now occurred to him that Frankie was pretty cute. He then felt a bit guilty for thinking of it. He remembered Annabeth, the fellow half-blood from his summer camp that he was developing a crush on.

It was true that they were not actually dating, and honestly he wasn't even sure whether Annabeth shared his feelings. But still, having feelings for anyone other than Annabeth felt weird. Although, now that he thought about it, before now Annabeth was the only girl who had been nice to him at all. Which was kind of sad, come to think of it.

He was saved the trouble of having to respond by the arrival of Heath Burns, who came up to them and cockily made finger-guns at Frankie.

"Hey girl, you're smoking, and I would know. How about a hot date with yours truly?"

...Wow, was this guy for real?

As they stood there in stunned silence, Deuce came by and turned to Heath as he lowered his glasses slightly, turning Heath to stone with his gaze.

Once Heath was fully solidified, Deuce turned to Percy and Frankie. "There. Fixed that for you. I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" He looked back and forth between them.

"Nah, not really," Frankie answered with a shrug. "So what's up anyway?"

"Oh, not much," Deuce said nonchalantly. "I was actually kind of hoping to talk to Percy."

"Oh, sure, no problem. I need to change anyway." Frankie started moving away. "See you later Percy!" she said cheerfully, giving him a wave.

"Bye," he called after her, waving back. When Frankie was gone he stood there awkwardly for a few moments. "Sooo..." he said to Deuce. He gestured to the petrified Heath. "Is he...going to be alright?" (His first thought had been "Is he dead?", but on second thought he probably wasn't and that seemed a strange thing to ask.)

"Hm?" Deuce said. "Oh, yeah, totally. I don't know how gorgons work in your world, but that will wear off in a few hours."

"Ah. Alright. That's good then." That certainly explained some things.

"Don't worry about it. Believe me, this happens all the time."

"Okay. So, uh, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Deuce shrugged. "Mostly I just wanted to make sure you were settling in alright, and to invite you to sit together at lunch. I thought you might want to get to know some of the guys."

"Oh. Yeah, that sounds great!" Percy agreed. "I'm really sorry about yesterday by the way."

"Heh, don't worry about it. Must have been a pretty big culture shock. Later." Deuce raised a hand in farewell and walked off.

-

At lunch, Percy took his serving of slop and walked over to sit with Deuce. Besides the two of them, there were two other boys that Percy didn't recognize, a fishman and a werewolf.

"Percy, meet Clawd and Gil," Deuce said. The two raised appendages in greeting, as did Percy.

"So Percy," Deuce said. "I thought you could use some guy friends. I figured you didn't have any, from what I've heard about you."

Percy shook his head sadly, thinking about his friends here and back home. "Ah, no, that's right. I used to have one, but he tried to kill me."

There was a moment of stunned silence at this. Clawd was the first to speak. "Uh. Wow, man, that's messed up. Sorry to hear that."

Percy nodded. "Thanks."

"Yeah man, sorry to hear that," Deuce said. After a moment he continued. "Aaanyway, let me introduce you to my friends here. This is Clawd," he said, gesturing to the werewolf who had just spoken. "Clawd is the captain of the casketball team. He's also the older brother of Clawdine, who I think you've met."

"Yo dawg," said Clawd, extending a paw to shake. Percy took the paw, and Clawd shook his hand with a firm grip. "Hey, speaking of which, we need some new members. Practice is after school, please stop by if you're interested."

Percy happily agreed to check it out. Beat being picked last.

Deuce introduced the remaining boy. "Gil is a member of the swimming team."

"Pleased to meet you," Gil gurgled, extending a fin.

Percy shook the proffered fin, feeling a sense of kinship with the water creature. With his keen senses as the son of the sea god, he had a telepathic connection with water creatures, as well as an awareness of all water around him. Sensing the water in the fishbowl on Gil's head, as well as the weakness of the mental bond, made a suspicion creep into Percy's mind.

"Hey Gil," he said slowly. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you a freshwater fishperson?"

Gil nodded. "Yeah. It's not really a big secret, most people can tell by sight. Although I would guess you wouldn't know the difference. Do you have fishpeople where you're from?"

Percy shook his head. "No, I'm pretty sure we don't. Are there a lot of fishpeople at this school?"

Gil shrugged. "There's a good number. Most of them are on the swim team, so I know them personally. I'll have to introduce you to my girlfriend, Lagoona. She's a saltwater person. But wait, if you didn't know all this then how did you guess I was a freshwater person?"

Percy explained. "My dad is Poseidon, the sea god. I can sense and control water and I can tell whether it's freshwater or saltwater. I, uh, also have sort of a telepathic bond with water creatures." He decided to test something and thought at Gil. "Can you hear me?."

Gil leaned back in surprise. "Whoa! Yeah, I heard that. Wow, telepathy, cool."

Just then, a minotaur charged past, braying and chasing an imp. As he passed he knocked Gil into the table and Gil's helmet cracked from the impact. The water quickly leaked out, and Gil started to gasp for breath.

Reacting quickly, Percy used his hydrokinesis to pull the water up to his palm. He took care to expel all the glass, then moved the globe of water up to Gil and held it in place around his head.

Gil gasped, breathing in water. "Thanks Percy, you're a lifesaver," he said.

"No problem," Percy said, keeping a tight grip on the water with his powers. "Uh, I'm going to have to let go of this at some point. Do you have a spare helmet or something?"

Gil nodded. "They keep some in the nurse's office. Uh, could you follow me there?"

"Of course." Percy got up, and the rest of the guys got up with him.

"We'll all go," said Deuce. "Can't just leave you two on your own while Gil needs help."

"No way bro," said Clawd. "Lead on Gil."

-

The extremely confident and professional school nurse had Gil's helmet replaced in a jiffy. Once his new helmet was on, she asked him some questions and did a basic checkup on him to make sure he was okay. After a short while she pronounced him ready to go.

As they started to leave, the nurse called out to them. "Percy?" she said.

The group stopped, and Percy turned around to face her. "Yes?" he said.

"Headmistress Bloodgood would like a word. She requests that you come see her at your earliest convenience."

Percy looked concerned. "Did she say why?" he asked.

The nurse shrugged. "She didn't tell me. I assumed it was between the two of you. Anyway, it's probably nothing terribly serious, or she would have come to get you personally."

Percy nodded. He had sort of guessed that, but it was nice to hear someone else say it.

He glanced at his watch. Apparently he still had some time before lunch was scheduled to end. He exchanged a look with the rest of the group. "I'll meet up with you guys later, okay?"

"Yeah, sure man," Deuce said. "Good luck with whatever it is. See you later."

The other guys waved Percy farewell and headed back to the cafeteria. Percy sighed and headed to the principal's office.

-

Percy entered Headmistress Bloodgood's office with an instinctive feeling of apprehension. "You wanted to see me?" he asked.

"Yes Percy," Bloodgood said from her place on the desk. "You remember how I told you that this school was looking for new students from your dimension?

Percy relaxed visibly. "Yes ma'am," he said.

"Well we've found another. One who lives near you, in fact. Do you know Tyson?"

Percy frowned. "I mean, I think I've met a few Tysons over the years. Could you be more specific?"

"If you had met him, you would know who I am referring to. He is several feet taller than normal. And he is a cyclops."

This surprised Percy a little. Percy was by no means a scholar, that was usually Annabeth's job. But still he remembered hearing a little bit about cyclopses through the Greek myths he had heard. Didn't they eat people? But it was entirely possible that he was wrong. Or maybe this cyclops was different. He didn't want to look stupid in front of the headmistress. So he just nodded.

A thought occurred to him. "Will we be taking the same cab?"

Bloodgood frowned. "That remains to be seen. But I think not. The cab would be rather cramped for mister Tyson. So I will see about finding alternate transportation. That will be all, Percy Jackson. Dismissed."

-

After classes were over, Percy met Clawd in the gym. Clawd's face lit up when he saw him.

"Hey bro!" he said. "Glad you could make it. Hey, by the way, how did things go with Bloodgood, if you don't mind me asking. I mean, if you wanna tell me about it?"

Percy shrugged. "Nothing much. Just stuff about the dimensional enrollment thing. You wouldn't know about it."

"Ah, that's cool. Well Percy, the locker rooms are over there. You can go change and then we'll do some basic exercises. We'll just be doing basic drills and such today, but I'll try to have a practice match soon."

Percy changed in the locker rooms and went back to the court smiling. They had set up some cones, so Percy practiced his dribbling. It turned out he could still do it pretty well. After a short while of this, Clawd came over to him and asked him to show him his shooting.

His shooting was okay, but not great. Clawd scratched his chin fur thoughtfully. "Hmm, not bad. You'll get better with practice. Still, I'd keep you on the inside for now."

Percy nodded agreement, and Clawd continued. "Now let's test your one-on-one skills. You play offense and try to score, and I'll play defense and try to stop you."

Percy took a stance and started dribbling, looking for an opening. He capered side to side, trying to get past Clawd. But the werewolf was good. He matched Percy's moves and never left an opening. Finally Percy charged to the left and made a shot, but Clawd was too quick. He swatted the ball out of the air.

The process repeated itself. As a demigod, Percy was faster and stronger than regular mortals, at least in his universe. But Clawd was able to keep up with him, and the basketball captain had the advantage of much greater experience too.

After Clawd blocked Percy ten times in a row, he had them switch positions. The reverse situation wasn't much easier for Percy, but after several tries he did manage to block one of Clawd's shots, which earned him a smile.

"Not bad man, not bad at all!" Clawd grinned. They continued practicing for a while longer, with much the same results. Finally, Clawd blew a whistle to signal an end to practice. The practice ended with all the old and potential new members introducing themselves to each other. Then everyone went to shower and leave.

-

Once Percy had finished showering, he found Mr. Hackington in his office. He had offered to bike to his dimension and take a cab from there, but the teacher had said he had work to do anyway and he could wait for him to be ready. The door was open, so Percy entered cautiously. "Mister Hackington, I'm ready to go."

With only a small acknowledgement, Mr. Hackington put away his things and took Percy out to the cab. They took off and the workers at the portal waved them through. Going through the portal reminded Percy of something he wanted to ask. "Say, Mister Hackington, how many different universes do these portals connect to anyway?"

"Well I dunno exactly kid," Mr. Hackington said. "This portal technology's pretty new. I helped design it meself, matter of fact," he stated proudly. "But I've been busy with me teachin' recently, so some other folks have taken over the project. We had at least five the last time I checked, probably more now. We ain't recruitin' from all of 'em though. Apply yerself and maybe you could get an internship to work on it, if you're so interested."

Percy shrugged. While he got along fairly well with Mr. Hackington, his Mad Science class was Percy's least favorite. Percy had never been good at science, and Mr. Hackington was very strict and demanding. Getting an internship seemed unlikely even if he wanted to try. Besides, he had Camp Half-Blood to attend during the summer, so it was pretty much out of the question.

"Over five..." Percy said in awe. This was almost like when he had discovered the Greek gods were real. To think that there were who knew how many universes out there, each with their own people and their own magic. What might he encounter next. The possibilities were so much more now.

The rest of the ride passed silently. Percy thanked Mr. Hackington again, and headed inside for dinner.

 **A/N: Well, after the better part of a year, here's another chapter. Thanks everyone for the favorites and reviews. It's really nice to know that so many people enjoy this fic. I can't guarantee anything, but I have lots more ideas and I enjoy writing this so I plan to release more chapters. Hopefully with a lot less delay this time.**


	3. Chapter 3

Percy woke up on Saturday morning after being roused into wakefulness by a strange dream. A normal strange dream, thank the gods, as opposed to the prophetic nightmares he was used to having as a demigod. Something about a thousand-year-old pharaoh (not related to Cleo) challenging him to a card game.

Percy turned in his bed and glanced at the alarm clock. It was early enough that he still had some time left before meeting his friends, but late enough that it wasn't really worth going back to sleep. So he got up, showered, got dressed, and headed downstairs for a leisurely breakfast.

After breakfast Percy did some homework. Then at 11 o'clock he starting biking to the mall in the alternate dimension where his friends lived.

He arrived on the other side of the passage and noticed some familiar landmarks. So far so good. He knew the way to school from here. But he wasn't going to school, so he would have to rely on Frankie's directions. He found the mall with minimal trouble. Once there, he followed the directions to the food court.

Frankie was the first to notice him, and waved so energetically that her arm flew off and landed in someone else's spaghetti. Frankie shamefacedly retrieved it and bought the person a new plate of spaghetti.

"Hey," Percy said, greeting them with a smile and dropping into his seat. "What's up?"

"Oh, not much," Frankie answered. "We just finished up some shopping. Not sure what we're going to do after lunch."

"Why, I think that should be fairly obvious," Cleo said in her usual superior tone. "We should go shopping, of course."

A chorus of groans greeted this statement, along with one moan.

"But we just went, Cleo. Don't you have enough stuff, and aren't you running out of room anyway?"

"Nonsense!" declared Cleo. "One can never have enough clothes. And I'm sure there's more room in my chariot. Somewhere." She muttered the last word.

"Plus," Cleo continued. "Now that we have Percy with us, we can get his opinion on some outfits. A male perspective will be quite nice."

"Well, good thing I can be your testosterone-fueled outfit scanner then," said Percy with amusement.

After lunch, they looked at clothes for an hour. (Though it felt like much longer to Percy.) Then they spotted Deus and he walked over to them.

"Deus!" Cleo said delightedly.

"Hey Cleo," Deus said smiling. He hugged her affectionately. "I got your text. Hey girls, hey Percy." Percy nodded in acknowledgement.

"So Deus, how does this outfit look?" Cleo asked.

"I think everything looks great on you Cleo," Deus said with perfect sincerity. Percy gave him a look of awed approval. Man, this guy was smooth.

"Oh, you always say that," Cleo said, trying to sound exasperated but not entirely succeeding. "Percy!" she said, turning on the boy. "What do you think?"

Percy shrugged for what felt like the hundredth time this hour. "Uhh...well...I like the color."

Cleo shook her head. "No, no, the color matches horribly with my bandages. Hmm, I'll have to try something else." She headed back into the fitting room.

Percy gave Deus a subtle look, as if to say "Why did she ask me, then?" Percy couldn't read Deus's return expression very well with his shades, but he guessed that the other boy was looking sympathetic, and he was definitely a little amused.

After another half hour, Cleo was persuaded to make a decision and after helping Cleo load her purchases into her chariot the group went off to look at some other stores.

Percy was browsing some skateboards when his demigod senses started tingling. He subtly leaned over to Frankie and whispered. "Don't panic, but is there anyone following us?"

Frankie slowly turned her head to look behind them. She whispered back. "Yeah, some girl in a long dress. She's moving kind of strangely."

Percy nodded. "A snake-woman. I think I read about her kind once. She called a...a...oh, I don't remember," he said with a small sigh of frustration. "I'm not good at remembering these things. Anyway, she's from my world and she's bad news."

Frankie looked serious. "Let's duck into that store. We can confront her there."

Percy gave a brief nod of agreement. The others, who hadn't heard the conversation but seemed to understand that something urgent had been discussed, followed.

After a few moments, the strange snake-woman swept swiftly into the store. She weaved between some racks of clothing and appeared behind Percy, poised to strike. She charged forward, trying to bite Percy. Percy turned his head and reached in his pocket, but before either of them could finish their movements, Frankie tackled Percy to the ground.

The snake-woman missed and got up to strike again, but found herself blocked by Draculaura, Cleo, and Clawdine. Draculaura bared her fangs slightly and raised her fists. Cleo reached into her bandages for something. And Clawdine unsheathed her claws.

Frankie and Percy stood up. Frankie turned to the snake-woman. "You just attacked Percy," she said. "What are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" the snake-woman hissed. "What are you doing?" She looked around at the group. "What is an Empousai, a Werewolf, an Egyptian Mummy, a Gorgon, and an undead all doing traveling with a demigod for this long without attacking him? Not to mention whatever you are," she said, looking at Frankie.

Frankie looked perplexed, but Percy answered for her. "Oh yeah, she's from Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. That would have been about a thousand years after your time. And to answer your other question, we're just hanging out. See, things work a bit differently here. If you were expecting allies I'm afraid you badly miscalculated." He pulled his ballpoint pen, Riptide, out of his pocket and prepared to strike.

Ghoulia put a hand on Percy's shoulder. Frankie talked to him. "Percy, you can't just kill her here. Whatever she may be, she's just a person here. That's murder. Let the authorities deal with her."

Percy visibly struggled for a moment, battling his demigod instinct to destroy the threat while he could. But after a few seconds he lowered his stance and stepped back. A wry smile came over his face. "For once, I think I'll do that, thanks."

Ghoulia took out her cell phone and dialed a number. She spoke into the receiver. "[Moan.] [Mooooaaan.] [Moan!]" She hung up.

Draculaura nodded. "Good vork Ghoulia, thanks."

The Dracaena glared. "Who did you call?"

Draculaura shrugged. "Oh, no vun of importance. But ve vill need you to wait with us for a few minutes please."

The Dracaena hissed out a laugh. "Not likely! If I really am as outnumbered as you say, I think it's time for me to take my leave. I don't think any of you soft weaklings could stop me, but still, don't try."

She turned to leave, but found Deus blocking her way. Deus put a hand on his sunglasses. "Look, you know what I am right? Either you stay there, or I make you stay there."

The Dracaena stayed there, a sour look on her face.

-

Two uniformed security guards came to escort the Dracaena out. She hissed. "I'll see you again, Percy Jackson!"

They watched the woman being led away. "Let's sit down somewhere," Frankie suggested. The others all agreed.

They found a table and sat down. Deus spoke first. "So, is this going to be like a regular thing with you?"

Percy shrugged. "Um, it's fairly common, yeah. But I didn't think it would be happening here. I'll talk to the portal people about fixing security."

Frankie nodded. "Good. By the way, this whole thing made me remember something. You said your sword was affected by the Mist or something like that. Did you ever figure out how that worked?"

Percy shook his head slowly. "You know, I never did. I should probably test that actually. Uh, is there any rule against taking out a sword in public."

Frankie shook her head. "As long as you're careful about it, no. In fact, I know some people who do it regularly."

"Uh, okay then." Percy took out Riptide from his pocket and uncapped it. The pen transformed into a bronze sword in his hand. He set it on the table.

"Right. So, this is Celestial Bronze. I know it looks dangerous, but it actually passes through mortals harmlessly. But if a monster or a demigod touches it..." He ran his finger along the blade and got a cut that began to bleed. He hastily put his bleeding finger in his mouth. "It cuts them normally," he finished, mumbling.

The group nodded. "So, if one of us touches it..." Frankie said, saying it like a question.

Percy took his finger out of his mouth and applied pressure to it with his other hand. "I don't know," he said, shrugging. "You saw how different the monsters in this world are. I don't know whether you would count. Uh, does anyone want to volunteer to test it?"

"I'll do it," Frankie said after a moment. She ran her finger along the blade. After a moment she withdrew it. "Yeah, feels sharp," she confirmed. "Anyone else want to try?"

Clawdeen, Cleo, and Deus all tried it with similar results. Percy looked interested. "Hmm, I wouldn't have expected all of you to count. It may just be because of the whole other dimension thing. The way to test it would be to find someone from this dimension who's completely normal and see if it affects them. Hmm."

"Yeah, I know a guy like that," Deus volunteered. "He likes science, too, so I think he'd be happy to help. I'll introduce you two sometime."

"Thanks Deus," Percy said gratefully.

Frankie checked her phone. "Oh my, it's getting late," she exclaimed. "I need to get home for dinner."

Percy checked his own phone. "Yeah, I should be getting home too."

Everyone else said "yeah, me too" or a similar expression of agreement. So Percy went home to his mom's apartment, to do some homework and then relax.


End file.
